Indus Valley Times

By Sudam Patra
Balasore, May 9: Inspired by the interest of their children to pursue studies despite all odds, parents of two Class X students of Odisha’s Balasore district – who had dropped out of school in their childhood, have successfully cleared the Matriculation examination.
More interestingly, the parents passed the examinations along with their children.
While 35-year-old Tapoi Khatua of Balasore appeared the matriculation exam along with her son Bikash and cleared it, 58-year-old Arun Bej, a resident of Jaleswar, passed the examination along with his son Biswajit with identical marks.
Tapoi, hailing from the Shabaraghata panchayat under Bhogarai block of the district appeared the exam from the Odisha State Open School while her son appeared the same as a regular candidate.
“Age is not a bar if one wants to study. Each time I watched my son study, I would feel the urge to grab the books and study along with him. I had always repented for not having completed my matriculation and knew this was the only chance. I took the plunge and thankfully my family was very supportive,” she said
Tapoi had once appeared her matriculation exam in 1999, but failed.
“Although I wanted to re-appear the exams but there were financial constraints and my family hastily married me off,” said Tapoi.
Son Bikash Kumar Khatua is proud of his mother’s achievement and attributes his good scores to his mother.
“Since both me and my mother prepared for the exams together, I was able to concentrate better and studied hard,” Bikash shared.
The Odisha State Open School, allows school drop-outs to appear for the Matric examination without attending schools.
Meanwhile, Bej also drew inspiration from his son Biswajit and both cleared the high school certificate examination with identical 342 marks.
Arun was unable to pass the Matriculation examination due to some issues. Similarly, his son Biswajit also could not clear the test. Hence, both Arun and his son had decided to appear for the test together.